Going away volleyball and bbq
Walker loves to play volleyball and was so excited to find a group to play with regularly a couple of years ago. He’s become a big part of the “team” as he rarely misses a Thursday game. Over the weekend they threw him a going away volleyball and BBQ. It was really sweet. I played some but it was hot and I was enjoying watching the volleyball dogs. Fitz the doxen is my favorite. We played until the sun went down and sadly said goodbye to some good friends.
So many “to do’s”
With all of the moving and such my time has been spread pretty thin. It seems like there is an endless list of things to do for moving, for my upcoming trip, for Walker’s permanent move, for the end of the month, for my business, and on and on. I’m sure we all feel like this some days. Just when I finish my list a new one is being formed in my head. Ah! I keep waiting for the day when I won’t have a list but I think I’m realizing that is not going to happen. So instead I need to be better at getting the thoughts out of my head and being even more efficient with my time. I’m working on it.
I did just finally give in and purchase an iPhone. I’m hoping this will help me to keep better lists and keep more of my ideas on “paper” rather than floating around in my head and keeping me from focusing on what actually is important or relevant at the time.
So what’s relevant right now? Walker and I are flying to Seattle tomorrow morning! If I can figure out this instagram thing by tomorrow I can share our journey! I’ll be back in Texas mid June but Walker will be there to stay. I’m not sure I’ve quite processed that yet.
Well I suppose I better get back to my pre-travel preparations! I hope you’re day is going well.
Easy Tiger and a night out
The start of the long weekend began with a move. I didn’t document any of it. As you can imagine though moving is never fun. It was way hotter at 9 in the morning than it should have been so that just made it all the more exhausting. The bulk of the moving went pretty quickly but we were all pretty tired and sweaty. It’s a bit of a funny move since my me and my roommate’s lease ends this month, Walker and I fly out on the 31st, and he also has to move out of his place. So we all worked it out so that my roommate would move into Walker’s place (where I will also be staying until I head to Michigan) and take over his lease. So we moved both her stuff and my stuff into Walker’s one bedroom apartment where he still had quite a bit of stuff himself. It was, and still is, pretty crazy at his place. There are boxes and bags everywhere! It’s a little stressful to have all your belongings so strewn about, especially when you’ve got to pack for a trip to Seattle. I tried as best I could to pull things out I thought I would need.
It would seem after the majority of our things were moved things overall would be less stressful but no. We still had a huge pile of goodwill donations, garbage, recycling, more things to move that we were still using, and lots and lots of cleaning. Oh yeah and a desk I still haven’t dealt with. ugh. It’s slowly been getting done over the weekend along with activities here and there for Walker’s last weekend in town. Luckily we have some pretty great friends that helped us clean on Saturday and that made it go by more quickly and made it more enjoyable.
Anyhow on Friday after we had accomplished quite a bit I geared up to head to a happy hour that had been planned. We went to Easy Tiger downtown, a place I’ve been wanting to go for a long time. They have ping pong, a beer garden, sausages, cheese, and bread. Um yum! It was nice to relax with friends after an exhausting morning. I was a little sleepy but I pulled through and had a great time. After happy hour we headed to a favorite tex-mex place per Walker’s request and continued the fun. Oh how I’ll miss these Texas nights.
Last dinner party
The timing seemed quite right when just a week before my roommate and I move out (still a month before I leave Austin, so yeah I get to move 2 times) a friend of Katie’s (roommate) came to visit. Before he moved we would get together and share our love of food. It was something I always looked forward to. So with him in town I couldn’t resist the suggestion that we do a little dinner party.
The food was a bit more random than other parties we’ve had but we enjoyed it no less. We ate cheeses (even a freshly made ricotta), some meats, roasted carrots, stuffed peppedews, fruit and nuts with honey, and fig spread with bread. The honey, I should mention,was rather unique as it was put into the container you see by the bees themselves. Not just the honeycomb but the actual container. Pretty cool huh? I had been waiting for just the right time to try it. It was obviously a hit!
A little later on we had a blind gin tasting since we realized we had 3 different kinds of gin in our house. Weird. I was the only one to get guess all 3 correctly. Hmm… Then I brought out the fruit and mint mini frozen pops I made. The could have been sweeter but I enjoyed them.
Duck soup!
Oh duck soup from Kim Phung how I love you and will miss you.
A few years ago Walker mentions something about duck soup and how his sister used to eat it when she was in college and it was really good. Mm ok. One day we find ourselves at the very restaurant he had mentioned with the duck soup. We ordered a bowl to share and I was more than pleased with what arrived. The duck was so rich and delicious and the broth was equally tasty and there was a pleasing variety of vegetables. It was a hit and I was hooked.
Sometime after that we drove by (Kim Phung) the restaurant while running an errand and I had it in my head I wanted the duck soup. Walker said well it’s way out of our way now but is there something else you’d like to eat? No, there is nothing else. We went to the store to search for something else and found ourselves at the meat counter asking for duck legs, of which they only had 1!
At this point I was getting hungry and cranky and I wanted was the real duck soup from Kim Phung. Finally Walker agreed that’s all he wanted also. We drove all the way back, got 2 orders to go, and happily ate our soups while watching Alton Brown talking about cooking duck.
With our impending move I knew I must have the duck soup once more. So Walker and I got 2 soups to go (1 turned out just not to be enough) and had a picnic in the park. Yum!
Going away party
When I first moved here nearly 4 years ago I was blessed to find a part-time job that very shortly after I started turned into a full-time job. The work family was the first family I made here and we’ve all become quite close. Aside from just seeing coworkers in the office I also played on the softball team (4 years in a row) we’ve been out for many happy hours, bowling, and other fun activities. It’s been great and they have been some of the best friends I’ve made here.
A few of them got together to throw Walker and I a going away party and it was so sweet. I was so happy that so many of my coworkers came to the party. We had such a fun time enjoying each others company, telling stories, and laughing.
When Walker was about to head out I remembered my camera and had him snap a few photos of me at the party which all turned out pretty funny and staged looking. I suppose my goofy face involves at least 3 chins. Nice!
I’ll miss you-farmer’s market
I mentioned in the last post that I will be moving soon and Walker will be going even sooner. Over the weekend I suggested we visit the farmer’s market together just in case it’s our last time. I bought a whole bunch of goodies to support my favorite farmer’s one last time. It’s sad to be leaving my very comfortable, friendly market. I know there will be other farmer’s markets but when you come so often you get hugs from the vendors that’s saying something. I will miss that and I like to think they will miss me too.
